Andrew Shaffer (Photo courtesy the author)
Who would have thought a fictional buddy-cop book about former President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden’s friendship would have turned into a best-selling series? Andrew Shaffer, author of “Hope Rides Again,” the sequel to last year's “Hope Never Dies," might've had a clue. The latest book in the mystery series finds Biden in Chicago visiting Obama. While Biden considers running for president, Obama’s Blackberry is stolen, and it’s up to the 44th president and his vice president to find it in the Windy City. Richmond magazine spoke with Shaffer about what sparked the series, researching the famed duo and meeting the former vice president.
Richmond magazine: What inspired the books?
Andrew Shaffer: The inspiration was really the Obama/Biden memes that were going around on the internet. During January [2017] they were leaving office, and everyone sort of had this nostalgic feeling rush for Obama and Biden and this supposed bromance they had. Then a few months later, you saw Obama going around the world on his private jet and partying on Richard Branson’s private island and doing all this fun stuff. Some people were asking where Michelle and the kids were, but I was asking, 'Where’s Joe?' so I decided to write a book and fill in the gaps.
RM: Were you able to speak with someone from Washington for your research?
Shaffer: There were a couple of former staffers that worked the Obama administration that I was able to talk to and kind of get an idea of what [Obama and Biden] were like behind the scenes. Last year I actually talked to someone who worked with Joe Biden on his rally tour for the midterm elections, and some of the detail I got from them was like, “Every time we pass a Dairy Queen, he would make us pull over,” and I was like, “That definitely has to go into the book.”
RM: Has anyone in the Obama or Biden families reached out to you about your book?
Shaffer: I did talk last year to Joe himself. He had been signing the book, and at different rallies people would come up to him with the book. … His staff got a hold of me and was like, “He wants to talk to you,” and I was like, “Oh, no, is he mad at me?” Then we met, and … I thought we were going to end up talking about the book, but instead he was talking to my wife about this small town in Kentucky that she’s from, and his brother-in-law is from there or something, too. It couldn’t have been a more Joe Biden-type moment, where he found the smallest possible thing to connect with somebody on.
Andrew Shaffer reads and signs books July 18 at Fountain Bookstore at 6:30 p.m. Free.
